NEC Urges Congress to Reconsider IPAB

Last year’s historic health care reform legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) created the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), and tasked the board with reducing the per capita rate of growth in Medicare spending. Under the PPACA, the IPAB will make proposals that are to be implemented by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

This spring, NEC Health Care Committee members became concerned about the creation and function of the IPAB. In particular, the PPACA restricts the ability of Congress to change fiscal targets set by the IPAB. The new law further restricts the ability of future congresses to enact certain Medicare-related policy changes unrelated to the IPAB. In short, the Council is concerned that Congress needlessly delegated authority to an executive branch agency.

In June 2011, the Health Care Committee wrote to members of the New England Congressional delegation urging them to either repeal the creation of the IPAB, or to amend the IPAB to function as a more traditional advisory board. Read the Council’s letter here.